Cigarette-type smoking media



March 21, 1967 J. B. BOYER CIGARETTE-TYPE SMOKING MEDIA 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Nov. 6, 1962 mm Y PM W aflw S W E A M M% w March 21, 1967 J. B. BOYER 3,310,055

CIGARETTETYPE SMOKING MEDIA Filed Nov. 6, 1962 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. JAMES B; BOYER 2 {ii/6w, A T TORNEY United States Patent 3,310,055 CIGARETTE-TYPE SMOKING MEDIA James B. Boyer, 140 Cabrini Blvd., New York, N.Y. 10033 Filed Nov. 6, 1962, Ser. No. 235,731 3 Claims. (Cl. 131-9) This invention relates to apertured or perforated cigarette-type smoking media with or without filter tips and the wrappers of such media and this application is a continuation-in-part of my copending applications Ser. No. 618,991, filed Oct. 29, 1956, now abandoned, and Ser. No. 183,235, filed Mar. 28, 1962.

The invention relates to cigarettes having a plurality of small apertures or perforations provided in the wrap per for admitting a controlled quantity of air to mix with the smoke each time the smoker draws and to permit the escape of some warm air or other gas or smoke after the smoker discontinues suction. The accompanying decrease in the temperature of the smoke, of the tobacco and of the filter-tip material, if a filter-tip is employed, results in increased filtration and efiiciency with acorresponding reduction in the amount of tars and other undesirable elements normally present in the mainstream of the smoke which would normally pass into the mouth of the smoker.

Conventional cigarette wrapper paper is inherently thin and weak. I have found through experiment that the wrapper tends to tear at the holes and that the holes tend either to close over or to open wider during normal usage or handling in and out of the package, with the result that the shape and size of the holes change, which impairs the proper functioning of the holes and the proper operation of the cigarette.

In accordance with one aspect of the invention, various types of conventional or commercial cigarette wrapper material may still be retained but yet novel means are.

provided for controlling or maintaining the shape and size of the holes and also for accentuating the existence of the holes. In the preferred form of cigarettes illustrated, a plurality of generally circular apertures are formed in the wrapper, and a quantity of printers ink, or some other material which is initially viscous, is applied to the wrapper so as to form a ring of material which strengthens or reinforces the wrapper around the circumference of each aperture.

Within the purview of the invention, instead of deposits of printers ink or other suitable initially pasty or gummy material preferably contrasting in color with the wrapper, the reinforcing or strengthening material can be a layer or layers of a material such as cardboard or cork or even an additional layer of the same material as the wrapper, but again, preferably of a color contrasting with that of the wrapper. Moreover, the reinforcing material (said deposits or layers) can take the form of separate reinforcement bodies or patches (one for each hole) or the form of one continuous body or patch or one continuous sleeve or band common to all holes, in each case so as to encompass but not cover the holes. Also, the reinforcing material (said deposits or layers) can be fixed either to the outside surface or to the inner surface of the wrapper, or to both surfaces if desired. The reinforcement "ice material can be an extension of the mouthpiece material provided that such material encompasses, but does not close off, each of the air-intake holes. The holes and associated reinforcement means can have various shapes.

In accordance with the invention, there is provided, as a novel article of manufacture, a cigarette either with or without a filter-tip, wherein a plurality of small air-entrance apertures are located within a section of the wrapper extending from the one-third point to the one-half point measured along the length of the cigarette from its mouth end which provides a substantial mixing length of tobacco between the apertures and the mouth end, the apertures being accentuated by novel means which also strengthens the wrapper.

The location of the perforations in the one-third to one-half zone not only curtails and decreases repeated revolatilization or re-evaporization of tars and other undesirable smoke components into the smokers mouth from this critical zone with a significant and unexpected increase in the filtration obtained from the cigarette as a unit, and from the filter tip plus the one-third to one half tobacco length in the case of a filter tip cigarette, but also serves to provide an important warning marker which alerts the smoker to discard the cigarette when the flame front has advanced near to the strategic location of such apertures.

It is an object of the present invention to provide improved apertured or perforated cigarettes and the like and cigarette wrappers therefor. Another object resides in the provision of controlled and accentuated apertures in cigarettes which meet rigid commercial requirements and which may be accomplished by uniquely simple production means. Another object of my invention is the provision of a plurality of strengthened or reinforced perforations of desired controlled size, shape and configuration in the wrappers of successively formed cigarettes which may be accomplished readily by automatic production apparatus.

A feature of the invention relates to means employed to maintain the size of the hole accurate and to prevent undesired tears or weakening of the paper. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, I have found that when the paper is penetrated or coated by a slightly gummy substance immediately surrounding the hole, there is no substantial weakening thereof and the paper will maintain the shape as received in the machine; further, the hole will effectively resist tearing or crushing. Accordingly it is still another feature of the invention to provide a cigarette wherein the ink normally employed in printing the trade name of the cigarette on the Wrapper is also used as the reinforcement substance. At the time that the paper is perforated and the holes are formed, ink is deposited around the hole thereby giving it at the same time an improved visual appearance and providing for adequate strengthening of the paper. The holes, themselves, preferably will be of such size as to be hardly discernible by the casual viewer. They preferably should be of such size that smoke is able to escape through the holes and yet sufiiciently small as to permit effective transfer of the ink to the area of the wrapper surrounding the holes for commercially acceptable printing of the dot or other configuration in which each perforation is embedded. From two up to as many as six holes may be employed in certain constructions. It has been established by experiment that the range of from three up to as many as five holes of average diameter in the neighborhood of one hundredth of an inch is preferred. A representative hole size may be roughly approximated by penetrating a cigarette with an ordinary straight pin. The exact size of each pierced hole in the completed and printed cigarette is difficult to measure. Its diameter appears to be a fraction of a millimeter, somewhat in the order of 0.3 millimeter.

The spacing of the holes themselves is subject to some variation. However, from the standpoint of modification and filtration of the smoke during the smoking of the important last half of the cigarette, superior results are obtained by holes spaced and clustered within part or all of a region which extends from about the one-third point to the one-half point along the length of the cigarette measured from the lip end. This leaves a substantial length of tobacco along the path between the lip end and the combustion zone in which undesirable volatile substances when mixed with fresh air, can be ad sorbed and condensed without again evaporating and reevaporating so as to escape and pass into the smokers mouth. Moreover, this avoids the burning off of the perforations. It also gives a pleasing appearance to the cigarette as a whole and provides a convenient indicator for the optimum safety point at which it should be discarded. For purposes of illustration, the holes have been shown distributed longitudinally along most of the wrapper length between the one-third point and the one-half point. However, all of the holes may instead be confined to just a limited portion of the full length between these two points, and if desired, all of the holes may be confined to a circumferential array distributed partially or completely around the circumference of the wrapper With all holes in the ring of holes being the same longitudinal disstance from the lip end somewhere in the one-third to one-half zone. The trademark printed on the wrapper may be combined with the holes pierced therein, or the holes may be so arranged as to contribute, or itself be of trade name or brand significance.

Additional features, objects and advantages of the invention will best be understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 represents an overall perspective view of a cigarette manufacturing machine useful in manufactur ing cigarettes in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic view of the path of the wrapper paper supply through certain of the sections of the machine including the perforating and printing stage and illustrating the inter-action and combination of elements;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a cigarette embodying the invention as produced by the combination machine of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a plan view of the paper supply as it leaves the printing and perforating stage;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged cross section fragmentary view taken on line V-V of FIG. 4',

FIG. 6 is a View of a filter tip cigarette according to the present invention;

FIG. 6A is a view of a cigarette according to the invention wherein the perforations are reinforced by a common layer in the form of an integral extension of a mouthpiece of the cigarette.

FIG. 7 is a front view of a die which may be employed for printing and perforating;

FIG. 8 is a sectional view taken on the line VIII- VIII of FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is an enlarged view of a portion of the paper showing the reinforced and accentuated perforations;

FIG. 10 is a plan view of the paper showing a different layout of perforations and a patch-type reinforcement;

FIG. 11 is a plan view of the paper showing still another layout of perforations inside printed dots and 8 in combination with a configuration of printed and nonperforated dots.

Reference may now be had to the drawings and more particularly to FIGURES l and 2, disclosing a cigarettemaking machine where the various stages in the automatic manufacture of cigarettes are indicated. Such machine and manufacturing method is claimed and described in greater detail in my aforementioned application Ser. No. 183,235. Unperforated cigarette paper 11 is supplied in web or ribbon form from the paper supply roll 16. It travels over rtensioning devices to a printing and perforating stage 12, described in detail below, the paper entering the stage 12 by way of idler roller 21. If cigarettes with mouthpieces 2 are desired, an additional roll 13 of stiff paper or cork 13' may also be provided to be subsequently cut into discrete mouithpiece lengths and attached to the paper 11, prior to its entry into stage 12, at spaced intervals by means of a conventional mouthpiece strip-addition section 7 so that a composite web 11' results.

After travel through the printing and perforating stage and out over idler roller 23, the paper web travels around an idler pulley, only the shaft 14 of which is shown in FIG. 1, and then is frictionally transported back to the left on top of paper-feed means such as a canvas endless belt, indicated by dotted line 20, the paper web carried by the belt first passing underneath a tobacco chute 15' of a filling section 15 where a controlled amount of tobacco is deposited onto the paper. The web with the tobacco on it then is led by belt through a forming die section 16 where the fiat web of paper with the tobacco on it is folded into tubular shape, along with belt 20. The folded web is pasted and sealed by a sealing section 17 to maintain its tubular shape. The continuous tube filled with shredded tobacco is cut into individual cigarettes at the cutofi section 18 where they are then received and packed at the packing section 19. Sections 15, 1%, 1'7 and 18, indicated collectively by unit 5, may be conventional stages employed in conventional cigarette-making machines, and similarly, their drive means and intercoupling means, including feed means 20, may be conventional except as modified in accordance with the present invention. Filter tips 4 may be added to the cut cigarette lengths, if desired by means of a conventional stage 9 between the cutting stage 18 and packaging stage 19. All stages or sections of the machine, including the driving pulley for belt 20, may be driven in synchronism from a single motor 44. Mounted on the die spindle is a printing and perforating die 26. An ink supply reservoir 27 and an ink feed and spreader arrangement 28 transfer printing ink from the reservoir 27 to the die 26.

Referring now in particular to FIGURES 7 and 8 where the details of the die are shown, it will be seen that when the ink feed arrangement transfers printers ink to the surface of the die the raised portions 29 there of will be coated with the ink. This raised portion consists of a printing section 30, which is arranged to print the trade name, trademark, or other legend on the cigarette paper. In order to perforate the paper, the raised section 29 is also provided with a group of stubby projecting points 31. These points project a slight distance d (FIG. 8) which may be in the order of one to five thousandths of an inch beyond the printing section 30 for the trademark. The die is brought adjacent the back-up drum 22 by means of adjustment 32 in such a manner that the printing section 30 will transfer ink and the sharp points 31 will penetrate the paper 11 to pierce the same so that when the paper is used later with tobacco thereon to form a cigarette, the cigarette will be provided with pierced holes 40. Each hole thus formed is of the pierced type with an approximate cross sectional shape through the paper as shown in FIG. 5, rather than of the kind which may be described as punched out, or stamped out and which latter case results in actual removal of a small paper disk from the opening. The hole 40 is defined by a generally annular flap portion which is pushed or deflected inwardly. For printing a. dotted configuration without perforating, or, as shown in FIGURE 11, for a combination trademark or other configuration of perforated and non-perforated dots, the non-piercing projecting points, not shown, would obviously be reduced in length in known manner by the distance d.

The reinforcement or stiffening of the flap portion and adjoining portions is provided by the ink which will soak in and dry on the paper in the area adjacent the holes 40, as illustrated at 33 in FIGURE 5, or at 34 in FIGURE 9.

Perforated cigarettes embodying the features of the invention are shown in FIGS. 3, 6 and 6A, FIG. 3 showing a plain cigarette, FIG. 6A one with an extended mou-Lhpiece and FIG. 6 one with a filter tip added. The area which contains the trade name printed by section of the die 26 is shown at 35. The holes, themselves, are carefully spaced and are located in a cluster 36, which is located within a region preferably extending from about one-third to one-half of the length of the cigarette up from the lip or mouthpiece end.

It was found that the size and number of the holes, and the spacing and configuration thereof, together with the location along the cigarette, bear a critical relationship for optimum beneficial treatment of the smoke while retaining the identity of the tobacco brand or blend and for satisfaction to the consumer. The arrangements here disclosed afford excellent distribution of the admitted air and a most effective length of travel of the resultant modified smoke admixture through tobacco filler, or tobacco filler and filter tip (where a filter tip is employed) to the tip end of the cigarette. This results in optimum cooling, smoke modification and filter action resulting in increased condensation and adsorption of heated vapors and tars for retention in the tip end section of the cigarette and elimination from the smoke with consequent benefits to the smoker. This condensation and adsorption will take place either in the remaining tobacco or in the filter (FIG. 6). This distance is somewhat longer than the length which is customarily discarded after a conventional cigarette has been smoked. However, the leading portion of the cluster will be located preferably adjacent the point at which the cigarette should be discarded without smoking tobacco which is saturated with condensation products etc. as a result of the improved filter action.

While the upper limit of the number of pierced holes preferably is six, and more critically five, for enhancement of or close identification of the smoke with the selected brand of tobacco, nevertheless as shown in FIG. 11 trade name initials or symbols may be outlined if desired by the use of non-pierced additional contrasting color dots 42 of similar appearance as the outline of the pierced holes and their printed dots 41.

FIG. 4 shows a plan view of the paper 11 as it leaves the printing and perforating stage. Dashed lines 37 indicate the lines of severance in the further manufacturing stage, that is, the point at which the paper will be cut later to form the wrapper for individual cigarettes.

In order to minimize any weakness produced in the paper, an arrangement of holes which is staggered both lengthwise and transversely of the paper, that is, axially and laterally of the finished cigarette may be preferred. Such a modified arrangement is shown in FIG. 10.

In accordance with a modified form, the present invention also contemplates a cigarette of either the filter tip type or the non-filter tip type wherein, instead of providing stiffening and accentuation of the holes by means of printed rings or similar arrangements wherein the stiffening material covers only a limited surface area of the cigarette wrapper immediately surrounding each perforation, the stiffening material may be applied so as to cover the entire, or substantially the entire, surface area of the cigarette wrapper in which all of the perforations as a group are located, each perforation still being completely and individually bordered or surrounded by stiffening material. For example, as indicated by the area 46 in FIG. 10, the total surface area of the wrapper in which all of the perforations are located may be overlaid or covered with printers ink or some other suitable stiffening or reinforcement material such as a layer of paper or cork secured to the wrapper, the stiffening material being interrupted only where the perforations occur, each perforation in the stiffening material being aligned with a respective different perforation in the wrapper. If desired, the stiffening material may extend substantially or completely around the circumference of the wrapper. In those constructions where the reinforcement material is paper, cork or the like, it may be integral with, or be an extension of, a stiffened mouthpiece 2, as shown in FIG. 6A, or a filter tip wrapper when such is incorporated in the cigarette, in either case the holes being located over part of the tobacco column. It will be appreciated that for some pierced holes a suitable stiffening coating, either colored or uncolored, may be selected for application to the pushed-in flap portions so as to permit limited defiection of the flap portions under suction conditions to vary the effective hole size while maintaining the hole size under other conditions of use or handling.

The foregoing constructions and methods have been illustrated and described by way of example. It will now be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications are possible without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A cigarette comprising a wrapper of combustible material and a quantity of tobacco inside said wrapper, said wrapper having therein a plurality of relatively small discrete apertures located within an area of the outer surface of the wrapper which is spaced from the mouth end of the cigarette, and means for reinforcing said wrapper at said surface, said last-mentioned means comprising a plurality of discrete deposits of printers ink applied to said outer surface, each of said deposits surrounding the perimeter of a respective different one of said apertures.

2. A cigarette comprising a wrapper of combustible material and a quantity of tobacco inside said wrapper, said wrapper having a plurality of dots of wrapper-reinforcing ink printed on the outer surface of the wrapper within an area longitudinally spaced from the mouthpiece end of the cigarette, said plurality of dots being spaced from each other in a predetermined configuration having visual significance, said wrapper having therein a plurality of perforations pierced therethrough and located within said area for admitting air from the atmosphere into the cigarette to mix with the smoke when the smoker draws on the cigarette and for releasing smoke from inside the cigarette out into the atmosphere after the smoker ceases to draw on the cigarette, each of said perforations being formed in said wrapper inside a respective different one of said printed dots, whereby the portions of the Wrapper material surrounding each perforation are reinforced by the respective printed dot.

3. Cigarette wrapper supply for the manufacture of perforated cigarettes comprising a supply of cigarette combustible wrapper material in the form of an elongated continuous ribbon of said material, each length of said strip which corresponds to a different cigarette to be manufactured having therein a group of minute perforations for admitting therethrough air from the atmosphere into the cigarette when the smoker draws thereon and for releasing gas from inside the cigarette out into the atmosphere after the smoker ceases to draw thereon, and means for strengthening each of said lengths of material in the vicinity of said perforations, said last-mentioned means comprising printers ink which is printed on said Wrapper material completely around each said per- 2,2 9,995 1/1942 Tran-e 13l15 foration, said printers ink having a color which contrasts 2,394,009 12/1942 Muth l31--15 with the color of said wrapper material to accentuate 2, 49,551 /1944 Helen 1311l the existence of each of said perforations in addition to 2,924,223 2/1960 Miller 13115 reinforcing said wrapper material at each of said perfora- 5 tiOns. FOREIGN PATENTS References Cited by the Examiner 9981557 9/1951 France- UNITED STATES PATENTS 139,673 3/1920 Great Britain. 1 157 754 10 1915 Benjamin 31 10 SAMUEL KOREN, Primary Exammel" 1,711,487 5/1929 Caldwell 13l15 M. D. REIN, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A CIGARETTE COMPRISING A WRAPPER OF COMBUSTIBLE MATERIAL AND A QUANTITY OF TOBACCO INSIDE SAID WRAPPER, SAID WRAPPER HAVING THEREIN A PLURALITY OF RELATIVELY SMALL DISCRETE APERTURES LOCATED WITHIN AN AREA OF THE OUTER SURFACE OF THE WRAPPER WHICH IS SPACED FROM THE MOUTH END OF THE CIGARETTE, AND MEANS FOR REINFORCING SAID WRAPPER AT SAID SURFACE, SAID LAST-MENTIONED MEANS COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF DISCRETE DEPOSITS OF PRINTER''S INK AP- 